For many in the American women’s college system, the pathway in the game is clear, with young talents registering for the annual NWSL Draft and hoping that they are lucky enough to be picked by one of the league’s 14 (as of this season) franchises.
However, there are other ways to make the transition into professional life, and it has become increasingly common for players who emerge from the college system to explore those as they try to give themselves the best possible chance of achieving success. One of those is to forgo the Draft in favour of joining a team outside of the USA. Some of those who have done particularly well from doing just that in recent history include Chelsea Women striker Mia Fishel, who joined Liga MX Femenil giants Tigres Femenil in 2022, PSG Féminine midfielder Korbin Albert and Nigeria midfielder Onyi Echegini, the latter of whom secured a move to Juventus Femminile earlier this month after leaving Florida State Seminoles.
It is that latter option that Brown Bears forward Brittany Raphino has opted to take, and there have been reports suggesting that teams in England, Scotland, France and Italy are all keeping an eye on her situation, whilst some NWSL sides also harbour hopes of adding her to their squads too. With that level of interest, it does appear that she could be destined for a big future, and this tactical analysis will look at why she is attracting so much interest and how she could fit into the tactics of any team who decided to make a move for her services.
Attacking threat
Given that Brittany Raphino is an attacker by trade and is well-known for her goalscoring prowess (she found the net on 13 occasions in 2023 for the Bears), it is true to say that any side who signed her would be getting another offensive threat and the potential to convert more chances into goals.
This is because where Raphino has been most seen is on the shoulder of the opposing defensive line, using her speed and awareness to make well-timed movements into the open territory behind them and punishing any mistakes that they make at the back. In this case, Yale Bulldogs’ Finnish defender Nana Yang has made the cardinal error of not assessing her surroundings before connecting with the ball, putting her goalkeeper under pressure, and overhitting the ball to make it easy for Raphino to intercept.
On this occasion, the chance didn’t come to anything as Yale did manage to recover in time, but this is not the only occasion when Raphino has been given this amount of time and space to cause opposing sides problems, with the fact that she scored 31 times showing that, when she does get these opportunities, she rarely misses.
